4 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE chap. 



we may all look at the same things, it does 

 not at all follow that we should see them. 



It is good, as Keble says, " to have our 

 thoughts lift up to that world where all is 

 beautiful and glorious," — but it is well to 

 realise also how much of this world is beauti- 

 ful. It has, I know, been maintained, as for 

 instance by Victor Hugo, that the general 

 effect of beauty is to sadden. " Comme la 

 vie de I'homme, meme la plus prospere, est 

 toujours au fond plus triste que gaie, le ciel 

 sombre nous est harmonieux. Le ciel ^cla- 

 tant et joyeux nous est ironique. La Nature 

 triste nous ressemble et nous console ; la 

 Nature rayonnante, magnifique, superbe . . . 

 a quelque chose d'accablant." ' 



This seems to me, I confess, a morbid 

 view. There are many no doubt on whom 

 the effect of natural beauty is to intensify 

 feeling, to deepen melancholy, as well as 

 to raise the spirits. As Mrs. W. R. Greg 

 in her memoir of her husband tells us : 

 "His passionate love for nature, so amply 

 fed by the beauty of the scenes around him, 



^ Choses Vues. 



